The Last Word

It was Sunday morning. The pastor was planning to preach on the Resurrection of the Lord. And he wanted his sermon to make an impression on the congregation. So he proceeded to shave in front of them. He lathered up, ran his razor over his face, first one side, then the other, then the chin, and finished up by washing his face with the water from a basin he had brought with him. (Doubtless, this was not a Reformed church!) Afterward, he said to a stunned gathering, “Today you have seen something you didn’t expect to see, and no doubt, when you leave, you will feel compelled to tell others about it. Some will believe you, and some won’t.”

That’s the way it is with the Resurrection, isn’t it? I think that’s the point the pastor wanted to make. Some believe, and some don’t. In fact, most don’t. And that’s the way it’s always been. But in our day skepticism is even more acute. The motto that seems to be gaining acceptance here of late is “Follow the Science.” And many moderns, thinking themselves to be sophisticated and scientifically informed, simply refuse to believe pretty much anything that has to do with what Christians call revelation, but certainly not that a man can be raised from the dead. The world in which we live assigns to death the Last Word, the Final Say.

But not God. God claims that life has the Last Word. Jesus Himself tells us in the most famous Bible verse of all that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have”—what?—“eternal life” (John 3:16, emphasis added).

And here in John, chapter 20, we have the basis for that claim. We have an empty tomb and a risen Lord. Jesus has submitted Himself to death. He has died, completely, fully, and to all appearances, finally. But as the old gospel song puts it, “Death could not hold its prey.” And in Jesus’ resurrection, God gave to life the Last Word.

At least, that’s the case that Scripture would make. And it has been the witness of the church for some twenty-plus centuries. Can we intelligently embrace this claim? Can we believe it? John wrote his Gospel to persuade us to do just that. In fact, he tells us in this same chapter: “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31, emphasis added). Will we believe? Should we? John says “yes,” and he gives us three reasons that we should. First, that mere sight—or, simply relying on our five senses—is not sufficient in and of itself to determine what to believe. Second, that mere reason—as great a gift of the Creator as it is—is not sufficient either, not by itself. And third, that only faith is sufficient, with our senses and our reason in a supporting role perhaps. But in the end it is to faith that we are called.

I Because Mere Sight Is Insufficient (John 20:1-2)

Let’s begin with sight. Generally speaking, our five senses are a reliable means of information. We can depend on them to tell us the truth. Most of the time, what we hear is real. What we see is there. But sometimes we misinterpret what we see.

That’s what Mary did, isn’t it? Look again at verse 1: “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.” Notice the word “saw” in that verse. She saw something. And what she saw was exactly what she thought she saw. The stone covering the entrance to the tomb had been removed. But notice what she concluded from what she saw. “She ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple…and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have laid him” (v. 2).

What Mary saw, you see, she did not understand. She thought of the opening to Jesus’ tomb as an entrance. She never thought of it as an exit. In her mind, some thugs had come and robbed the tomb. Her theory was that they had come and moved the body of Jesus. She couldn’t conceive of the possibility that Jesus had actually walked out of the tomb by Himself.

So, when it comes to revealed truth, mere sight is not enough. It is insufficient. As are our other senses. So many people in our day reject the Resurrection because it cannot be proven scientifically. And, while they are wrong in rejecting it, they right in thinking that it cannot be proven scientifically. Scientific proof requires carefully controlled and repeatable experimentation. And the Resurrection, being an historical event, cannot be repeated. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event.